Inconsistent findings have reported on the inflammatory potential of diet and cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality risk. The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate the association between the inflammatory potential of diet as estimated by the dietary inflammatory index (DII) score and CVD or mortality risk in the general population. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed and Embase databases through February 2017. All prospective observational studies assessing the association of inflammatory potential of diet as estimated by the DII score with CVD and all-cause, cancer-related, cardiovascular mortality risk were included. Nine prospective studies enrolling 134,067 subjects were identified. Meta-analyses showed that individuals with the highest category of DII (maximal pro-inflammatory) was associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality (hazard risk [HR] 1.22; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.06-1.41), cardiovascular mortality (RR 1.24; 95% CI 1.01-1.51), cancer-related mortality (RR 1.28; 95% CI 1.04-1.58), and CVD (RR 1.32; 95% CI 1.09-1.60) than the lowest DII score. More pro-inflammatory diets, as estimated by the higher DII score are independently associated with an increased risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, cancer-related mortality, and CVD in the general population, highlighting low inflammatory potential diet may reduce mortality and CVD risk.